Though it was still less than an hour before the sun would rise and brighten the world—
In that single instant, Kōbe Hikaru's mind had already formed an idea, a thought.
He had made his decision.
And he set his plan into motion.
Violet thunder and the crimson flesh of the evil Demon collided madly atop the ruins of the Tahōtō.
Kōbe Hikaru's figure moved so fast that only an afterimage remained. The [Thunder-Sinew Razor-Body] was pushed to its very limit, and every swing of the Muramasa in his hand carried a thunderstorm mighty enough to split mountains and cleave stone.
Squelch!—
The blade severed the six-fingered claw the evil Demon swung at him. The cross-section was charred black, no blood flowing out, only dark red buds of flesh writhing frantically.
"Truly... a nauseating vitality."
Kōbe Hikaru cursed under his oni mask.
The sensation was far too foul.
It was like chopping his blade into a viscous mudflow—yes, it could cut through, but that clinging resistance and the swift healing that followed set his nerves on edge.
Although the evil Demon was pinned in place, its upper body still raged with abandon.
The severed claw regrew within half a breath, growing even thicker than before, its surface now covered by a layer of hard, shell-like skin—it was adapting to Kōbe Hikaru's strikes.
This was the sickening thing about that bloodline said to descend from the so-called progenitor of Demons.
Not only undying, but constantly evolving.
"Roar—"
The evil Demon bellowed. The enormous hollow in its chest suddenly gaped open, spewing forth a dense black mist—a highly compressed cannon of yōkai aura, potent enough to corrode everything before it into nothing.
But Kōbe Hikaru did not dodge.
He did not even block.
Because a streak of white light was faster than the black mist.
Shff—!
The Sacred Arrow, wrapped in dazzling spiritual power, pierced through the core of the black mist and burst apart the instant it made contact, grinding that corrosive yōkai aura to shreds.
The arrow, its momentum still unspent, drove straight into the evil Demon's throat, forcing its roar right back down.
Kikyō stood thirty paces away.
Her longbow held level, her white upper garment clinging to her body in the night wind, tracing the slender yet upright line of her spine.
The hem of her robe streamed backward with the surging air.
Her expression was calm as still water, her jet-black eyes locked upon the evil Demon. Every draw of the bow was fluid as flowing clouds, carrying an utterly natural grace.
One near, one far.
One thunder, one spirit.
The coordination between the two was seamless, pinning this centuries-old evil Demon down in the very center of the ruins.
Though Kōbe Hikaru now possessed only Six Mutations, he had long surpassed the ordinary Seven-Mutation or even Eight-Mutation yōkai of the same kind and foundation. In concert with Kikyō, he could perform even better still.
But being able to suppress it did not mean being able to kill it.
The arrow in the evil Demon's throat was squeezed out by regenerating muscle and fell to the ground.
Its wound healed, leaving not the faintest trace behind.
It too seemed to realize how difficult this pair—man and Demon—truly were, yet it felt no fear.
Because it was undying. Undying as a monstrous Demon, and undying as a human-demon.
It split its great mouth open and let out a grating, mocking laugh.
And yet.
At that very moment.
"The time... is just about right."
Kōbe Hikaru abruptly halted his assault.
He stood three zhang before the evil Demon, the Muramasa in his hand pointed slantwise at the ground, the thunder coiled about his body not fading but growing more blindingly brilliant.
Those crimson oni eyes stared coldly at this colossal creature through his mask.
And he suddenly said:
"Is this the limit of what you've got?"
The evil Demon was stunned for a moment, then flew into a rage.
It was a great Demon that had devoured thousands of people!
"Arrogant little brat—"
It snarled, struggling to wrench free the legs pinned down by the bone spikes.
"Time to be on your way."
Kōbe Hikaru paid its impotent fury no mind.
He stamped down hard against the earth.
Boom!—
Not charging at the evil Demon.
But—charging toward the sky.
The terrifying thrust unleashed by the [Thunder-Sinew Razor-Body] shot him upward like a violet meteor, tearing off the ground in an instant.
It was not to attack—it looked more like he meant to—flee?
That evil Demon, pinned to the ground and boiling with rage, froze for a heartbeat.
Then the red eyes deep within its sunken sockets erupted with extreme derision.
"Flee? You want to escape into the sky?"
"Hahahaha—you think that once you leave the ground, I can't catch you?!"
Boom!
The ground shattered completely.
The evil Demon's thick legs—only just freed from the bone spikes Kōbe Hikaru had severed, now fully regenerated—stamped down heavily upon the earth.
Within a radius of ten zhang, the ruins instantly collapsed into a crater several meters deep.
Riding that terrifying recoil, the towering crimson body, one zhang tall, shot up like a cannonball fired from its barrel, ripping through the air with an ear-splitting sonic boom, chasing straight after Kōbe Hikaru in the sky.
It could not fly.
But with the yōkai power drawn from that great Demon and the physical strength granted by its twisted bloodline, its leaping force was enough to reach the very clouds.
"Don't think you can run! Your flesh and blood—leave it behind!!"
The evil Demon roared, its claws tearing through the night wind, pursuing relentlessly behind Kōbe Hikaru.
Two figures, one violet and one grey, one leading and one chasing, burst through the low-lying mist in an instant and bored into the thick layers of cloud.
In the meantime.
On the ground.
Behind Kikyō, the two Tahōtō shrine maidens, Momiji and Botan, lifted their heads and watched the two dark shapes vanish into the clouds, the expressions on their faces freezing over.
"That... that yōkai, did it get away?"
Botan murmured to herself, her large eyes full of confusion. "No, that's not it—he's luring that Demon away... to protect us?"
Momiji said nothing; her gaze rested more upon Kikyō.
That shrine maiden in white robe and red hakama was not looking toward the sky.
Nor did she give chase.
She had even withdrawn her gaze, turning instead to face the east—the direction of the endless ranges of mountains.
There it was still pitch black, only a single faint glimmer flickering. The darkness before dawn was at its deepest, and there was still at least a quarter-hour before the sun would rise.
And yet, Kikyō raised her bow all the same.
Drawn to full.
Spiritual power gathered at the arrow's tip—but it was not the aggressive, bursting white light. Instead it was utterly clear, utterly pure, with the luster of crystal.
Shff—!
The arrow left the string.
But what left Momiji astonished was that this arrow was aimed neither at the evil Demon in the sky nor at any target on the ground.
It was loosed toward the impossibly distant high sky in the east—toward that empty, formless void.
Then came the second arrow.
The third arrow.
Each arrow flew toward a different direction, seemingly chaotic and random—one might even call it wild, aimless shooting.
"What is she doing?"
Momiji couldn't help but speak, her tone carrying an undisguised confusion and anxiety. "That Demon has already chased Kōbe Hikaru into the sky—where is she shooting? Did she miss? Or is it that..."
Or was it that, faced with such a terrifying undying evil Demon, faced with her own companion's flight, even this legendary shrine maiden had lost her composure, able only to make such a meaningless vent of frustration?
Those arrows flew into the high sky and burst apart at an immense distance.
There was no sound of explosion.
They simply turned into patches of pale blue specks of light, suspended in the air.
Like shattered fragments of a mirror hanging forlornly against the curtain of night—neither beautiful, nor showing any trace of destructive power.
"It's over..."
Botan was on the verge of tears. "That oni warrior called Kōbe Hikaru has been caught up to, and Lady Kikyō's arrows have gone astray... if that Demon comes back down, we're all going to die..."
High in the sky.
A frigid current of air rushed against his face.
Kōbe Hikaru's figure suddenly halted in midair. Violet Thunder Wings unfurled at his back, and he hovered above the churning sea of clouds.
Almost at that same instant.
Whoosh—!
A reeking wind struck his face.
The evil Demon had burst through the clouds, and with a savage grin, carried by its own inertia, it rushed right up before Kōbe Hikaru.
"Got you!"
It thrust out its six-fingered claw, grasping toward Kōbe Hikaru's throat.
Kōbe Hikaru still did not dodge.
He merely watched this evil Demon quietly, his crimson oni mask appearing especially indifferent under the thin starlight.
"Do you think that you're the hunter?"
His voice was very soft, torn to fragments by the high-altitude wind.
The evil Demon's movement did not stop; its claw was about to touch the other's neck. "Enough talk! Die—"
At that very instant, Kōbe Hikaru raised his hand.
"...Thunder—disperse!"
The violet thunder that shot skyward was aimed not at the evil Demon before him, but still upward—crashing into the churning pitch-black sea of clouds above.
Boom!—
The sea of clouds abruptly parted.
And with it, the evil Demon's claw froze in midair.
Because it felt a chill—a dread that made its very soul tremble, rising from the depths of instinct.
That was... light.
Where had the light come from?
It was clearly still the dead of night; the sun was clearly still below the horizon, shielded tight by the mountains and the earth.
Instinctively, it looked toward the east.
There it was still a stretch of darkness.
But from the corner of its eye, it saw something else.
Above its head, at its sides, in that impossibly distant high sky.
Those pale blue specks of light—transformed from the arrows Kikyō had loosed, the ones that seemed to have missed.
They were not meaningless fragments.
They were—mirrors.
Lenses formed of pure spiritual power, capable of refracting light.
The first mirror hung at the highest point, having just cleared the curvature of the horizon, catching that thread still on the far side of the earth, below the horizon line, not yet shining upon the mortal world—
The first ray of dawn.
Refraction.
The light struck the first mirror of spiritual power, its direction changed in an instant, shooting toward the second.
Focus.
The second cast toward the third.
The originally feeble dawn light, after layer upon layer of focusing and amplification through several lenses of spiritual power, became a dazzling golden line.
Descending from the heavens.
Like a sword of light plunging down from the land of the gods.
"This is..."
On the ground, Momiji's pupils shrank sharply.
At last she understood.
Kikyō had taken the sky as her chessboard, spiritual power as her chess pieces, building a path of light through this pitch-black night sky.
She had 'borrowed' the sun—still below the horizon—and brought it up!
With sunlight, to tear apart the undying.
Could it be that sunlight was the very weakness of that evil Demon?!
Yes.
This, strikingly, had been Kōbe Hikaru's plan all along. Half an hour was too long; he could not afford to wait, nor did he intend to.
And it was, moreover, the tacit coordination between Kikyō and Kōbe Hikaru.
No need for words—one only had to watch the other's actions to know what the other meant to do. Intimate beyond parting.
"No—!!"
High in the sky, the evil Demon let out a shrill, agonized wail.
It wanted to flee.
It wanted to bore back down beneath the clouds.
But it was already too late.
The blood mist around Kōbe Hikaru had long since quietly spread, forming a vast cage that, together with the thunder, trapped the evil Demon within.
And that borrowed sunlight, purified and focused through the spiritual power.
Just like that,
shone down upon the evil Demon's body.
"Gah—!" "Aaaaaah—"
The evil Demon's body began to smoke.
Its crimson skin, as though doused in strong acid, swiftly festered, charred black, and crumbled into ash.
It wanted to hide, wanted to run.
But Kikyō's radiance of spiritual power interwove with it, forming an absolutely sealed barrier prison as well.
No path to the heavens above, no door into the earth below.
It could only watch helplessly as that golden pillar of light devoured it, bit by bit.
"It should end now."
Kōbe Hikaru hovered outside the pillar of light, his grey robes snapping in the morning wind.
He gazed at the collapsing evil Demon, his tone detached.
"Whether you're a great Demon of centuries, or the bloodline of some progenitor of Demons."
"Under the sun—"
"You're all the same—ash."
Boom!
The sunlight surged violently.
Above the sea of clouds, golden light blazed for ten thousand zhang.
That was the dark clouds blasted apart—and also the sky, finally and utterly brightening.
It was seven wheels of light-paths, laid out in a single line!
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